Organic electronic components such as, for example, polymer chips, organic photovoltaic elements and/or organic light-emitting diodes are known. All of these organic electronic components include at least one organic active layer; the material of such a layer or the additional materials present in the layer structure are usually sensitive to oxidation and/or moisture, and the electronic component as a whole therefore usually has to be protected against environmental influences.
One of the most decisive factors in the commercial exploitation of any organic electronic device is the life of the component, which is determined by the stability of the organic active layer(s). The problem here is that no technique has yet been developed by which an organic light-emitting diode (LED) could be protected for example against environmental influences to such an extent that its functionality remains stable for three years or more.
At present, it is standard practice to protect organic electronic components against air and moisture by means of an encapsulation created by inverting a glass or metal cap over the component and attaching it to the substrate. The encapsulation also simultaneously protects the component against mechanical damage, and drying agents/antioxidants, etc., can additionally be fixed to the inside of the capsule.
A disadvantage of the encapsulation-based method, however, is that the material boundary between the substrate, the connecting glue and the capsule is subject to the diffusion of atmospheric moisture and oxygen, which then severely affect the imperviousness of the structure, in particular sharply reducing the life of the component.
For this reason, an encapsulation provided with a dual adhesive bond (“rim coating”) has recently been proposed, as in US 2003/0143423, in which the capsule is attached to the substrate as well as possible by means of a first, preferably inner adhesive bond, while a second, preferably outer adhesive bond prevents the ingress of moisture and oxygen insofar as possible. Here again, a disadvantage of these encapsulations is that a diffusion pathway forms along the material boundaries of the various materials (substrate, glue, encapsulation), so that ultimately the imperviousness of the encapsulation is not ideal and the component instead is still damaged by environmental influences. In particular, the barrier effect of the structure as a whole may be determined by the diffusion along the material boundaries, and may therefore be higher than the diffusion through the volume of the adhesive.